By contrast Spaceand People which manages and sells promotional space in shopping centres and other high-footfall venues saw its shares gain 18.06 per cent rising from 180p to 212.5p.

The increase came after it raised £250,000 through a placing of 131,579 new shares at 190p each.

Earlier this year the Glasgow based company won a five year contract with ECE Projektmanagement GmbH of Hamburg to exclusively manage, market and sell all promotional opportunities initially in 55 shopping centers in Germany, increasing to 67 in 2009. The deal saw the number of shopping centres that SpaceandPeople manage increase from 172 to 227.

No guesses as to why Scottish & Newcastle shares soared by 17.2 per cent to 744p. The news that rivals Carlsberg and Heineken had combined to make a takeover offer for the company boosted its shares though, as we write, Edinburgh based S&N have rejected the approach.

The rocketing price of oil has naturally been a boon to oil and gas companies including Faroe Petroleum and Melrose Resources which were third and fourth respectively in our risers table.

As well as simple sentiment Faroe won favour when it announced that the southern North Sea Breagh well, in which it has a 10 per cent interest, had encountered significant gas deposits.

The company has also acquired 18.75 per cent of First Oil Expro's 37.5 per cent interest in the UK Southern North Sea Wissey gasfield development.

Melrose's new chief executive David Thomas helped its share price when he said the company was on the cusp of a transformation in its finances as big increases in production sustained greater exploration activity, which could generate further growth.